A while back, @IndyDonutGuy started following me on Twitter. He’s local, he likes donuts, so of course I followed back—what more do you really need to know about someone?
After a short conversation, he became privy to the information that my birthday was quickly approaching, so as a kind gesture, he delivered donuts to my office. This gave my colleagues and I the opportunity to find out who the “man behind the donut” really was.
It turns out this individual created the Twitter handle a little more than a year ago, and he delivers donuts to one unsuspecting, special individual each week, but he also tries to accommodate birthday requests if time permits. His motivation behind delivering donuts, you ask? Not to gain fame or notoriety, but simply to build relationships with other business professionals. You can never have too many friends—or Twitter followers, for that matter.
He’ll stop and chat with the employees at his latest stop, but he won’t talk about his job or company unless asked. As the “Indy Donut Guy,” his goal is to spread delicious donuts across town, while learning more about the community and local businesses.
We can all take a page out of the Indy Donut Guy’s “recipe” book for building relationships and capitalizing on them.
In a strange (not-so-cinnamon) twist to this story, the Indy Donut Guy’s own employer doesn’t even know about his second identity, and we’re not about to tell!
Thanks for the treats!
Tags: @IndyDonutGuy, Communication, donuts, doughnuts, food, fun, Indianapolis, Twitter
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Earlier this year, I received an email from a friend inviting me to join Pinterest. At first I thought, “Great, one more social media site to keep track of”—but this was the same friend who invited me to join Facebook several years ago, and I decided to check it out. What I discovered was a treasure trove of information, ideas and possibilities.
What is Pinterest?
In his blog post “What is Pinterest? And should your brand climb aboard?”, Matt Wilson phrased it best when he said to think of Pinterest as the “reverse Twitter.” He’s exactly right. Most people are visual learners and want to see pictures and videos, which is what makes Pinterest different from other social media websites through which content is shared mostly via text and links. Similar to Twitter, however, the best way to gain traction is to follow other users and interact. On Pinterest, users “pin” images and videos to organized “boards,” which are shared with their followers. (Check out a rather complicated infographic here illustrating how the pretty simple idea works.)
Should you be pinning?
Organizations reviewing their social-media plans should consider how, if at all, Pinterest could help them engage with their target audiences. For example, a furniture manufacturer could upload images of its products for designers to consider in future projects. An architect could post photos from their portfolio and ideas to share with potential clients or partners. As long as visuals are available, the options available through Pinterest become endless.
Pinterest currently includes a recommendation in its “Pin Etiquette” that users avoid blatant self-promotion—but more and more brands are jumping in.
Some of the early, and successful, business adopters to this new medium include Time Magazine, Nordstrom and Williams-Sonoma. They’ve each used Pinterest in similar, yet different, ways to introduce users to their brand. Time Magazine uses it to highlight writer profiles, covers and images, while Nordstrom shares the latest in fashion.
Pinterest creates an opportunity for brands to connect directly with end users and share the visuals they likely already possess. Although Pinterest currently draws mostly young and middle-aged women, don’t let it fool you. It is currently one of the fastest growing websites out there, and chances are by this time next year, several hundred brands will be sharing their products, services and causes via Pinterest.
Further reading:
Mashable: How Pinterest is changing website design forever
APM Marketplace: Pinterest is a rising star, driving tons of traffic
Fast Company: Chobani Yogurt tickles the tastes of Pinterest addicts, and so can your brand
LLsocial: Pinterest is quietly generating revenue by modifying user submitted pins
BlogWorld: Why I don’t mind Pinterest hijacking my links
Tags: brand, Branding, Creative, Design, online, Pinterest, social media marketing
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You know the story: the resources have been invested, the content has been developed, you’ve listened, you’ve engaged… but now what? Is your approach working? Is the time investment paying off?
While social media has become a valuable part of the marketing mix for many of today’s companies, many recent studies show most measurement is ad hoc and scattered. Of those attempting to measure, few are doing it in a meaningful way.
The message was clear throughout the social media-focused sessions at ExactTarget’s Connections 2011: the next opportunity for marketers is to look at social content and conversations as data. Why is this important? Several reasons: competitive tracking, understanding your brand momentum, industry research, crisis communications, customer support and strategy evaluation, to name a few.
Think of each conversation as a number, then each post has a value. In the next few years, companies will—and need to—become more and more savvy about leveraging social media data. What can you start measuring today? Consider starting with brand mentions, sentiment, number of followers, retweets and replies. Marketers now have an opportunity to align and overlay data sets from multiple social channels with valuable sales metrics to determine if their investments in social media are paying off.
Are your investments paying off?
Related posts:
Connections 2011: ExactTarget’s user conference wows again
The power of nine quotes: most memorable quotes from Connections 2011
Social media success: Southwest Airlines’ rapping flight attendant
Tags: brand, Connections 2011, data measurement, ExactTarget, How to, Marketing, measurement, online, PR, Public Relations, ROI, social media marketing
Posted in Social media | 1 Comment »
Southwest Airlines, as a brand, has always fascinated me. When I think of the airline, the words “Bags Fly Free” first come to mind. I also think of the fun flight attendant who dressed as Elvis when I took a Southwest flight out of Nashville. I’ve never had a bad experience with Southwest, so I was excited to hear more about their social media strategy when they presented at the ExactTarget user conference, Connections 2011.
Southwest has no problem with their employees expressing their personalities through their job. One flight attendant took this to heart when he was tired of passengers not listening to his pre-flight announcement. He decided to rap the pre-flight announcement to switch things up. A passenger recorded the video and posted it on YouTube.
After hearing about this at Corporate, they decided to send a professional videographer to record the rapping flight attendant in action. The video was then posted on the Southwest Facebook page, shared on Twitter and featured on the Southwest corporate blog. The story was also pitched to national media outlets. The video of the rapping flight attendant soon went viral and spread through national media—it even got a mention from Oprah and an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. If you search “Rapping Flight Attendant” on YouTube, you will find pages of results with a handful of the videos logging over 200,000 views.
Southwest Airlines is successfully using social media channels to further establish the company culture at Southwest and demonstrate the value they put in their employees. How might you do the same?
Related posts:
The power of nine quotes: memorable ideas from Connections 2011
Connections 2011: ExactTarget’s user conference wows again
The 7 most interesting things I learned at BIN2010
Tags: brand, Connections 2011, current events, Customer relations, employees, ExactTarget, online, social media
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Walk down the street or open a magazine and chances are you’ll run across a little icon that’s changing the face of communications. It’s called a Quick Response code or QR code®.
A QR code is a two-dimensional matrix code readable by QR barcode readers and camera phones. The code itself consists of a series of black modules arranged in a square on a white background.
There are also codes that look like this:
This is a High Capacity Color Barcode (HCCB)—the name that is used by Microsoft® for its 2D barcode technology and serves as the basis of the Microsoft Tag application. Codes are made using clusters of colored triangles instead of square modules typically associated with 2D barcodes. HCCBs can range from 2-color black and white up to 8-color images.
Microsoft Tag is a proprietary 2D barcode implementation of HCCB that is specifically designed to be scanned by a mobile phone. The major difference between Tag and other 2D barcode technologies is that the URL (or data) is stored on the cloud. This means that you can actually use a single tag multiple times, allowing you to adjust your campaign on the fly.
QR codes have been around since the 1990s.
The QR code was originally developed in 1994 by the Toyota subsidiary Denso Wave to be used in tracking parts in the automotive supply chain. It has since been adapted for a variety of uses, including but not limited to, sharing a vCard, opening a web page, composing an email or sending a text message. They have been used everywhere from product packaging, magazines and signs, to trade shows, buses and business cards.
The applications are virtually endless.
QR codes can be used in a variety of ways and places. Using them in marketing efforts provides a greater ability to track response and calculate ROI.
Examples of QR code uses:
Why consider QR codes:
They’re green.
Using QR codes helps reduce the use of printed materials which saves paper, making it a more sustainable and cost-effective option for promoting your business.
Concise up-front information.
By using a QR code on your printed material, you don’t have to weigh down your target audience with too much information. In addition, it saves the recipient from having to carry physical materials, such as brochures and press kits, around with them—items that can be misplaced or accidentally thrown away. QR codes significantly increase convenience for your target audience members who use smartphones and provide an immediate experience with a brand.
Increased website traffic.
Since QR codes instantly take smartphone users online, they increase website traffic for companies. And chances are, once the person is online, they will delve deeper into the company web page to find out more information.
They’re new and different.
Tech-savvy smartphone owners love all things new and different. Giving them a new, more convenient and creative way to access information may get them more interested in what your company or products have to offer.
Cost considerations.
Denso Wave owns the patent rights on the QR code (the term QR code is a registered trademark of Denso Wave Incorporated), but the use of them is free of any license. QR codes are defined and published as an ISO standard.
A variety of online tools make it easy for anyone to generate a QR code. Real costs are incurred when there is a need for detailed reporting and campaign control using a provider like ScanLife.
Want to learn more?
Scan either the QR code or the Microsoft Tag featured in this article (or simply click this link) to view a digital version of our QR code white paper.
Originally published in the MB Journal Q2 2011
Posted in Advertising, Branding, Communication, Digital Media, Marketing, Public Relations, Social media | Comments Off
Tweet
Group texting has been called the breakthrough trend at this month’s SXSW conference in Austin, TX. A few applications fought for the number-one spot as the word about group texting spread, but it seems there was a winner: GroupMe. The app is less than year old and is handling more than a million texts a day.
What is GroupMe, and how does group texting work?
GroupMe lets people quickly and easily text message multiple people at a time. In the application, you start by creating a private group. (If it helps, think of it as Google Groups for text messaging.) The app’s main functions include group messaging, conference calling, location sharing (like Foursquare or Facebook Places) and photo sharing. Each group is given a unique phone number, and a text message sent to that number goes to everyone in that group at one time. Or, to start a conference call, you simply call your group’s unique number. Also, it’s free.
Group texting really seems to be a new medium of communication that is spreading like wildfire thanks to the popular SXSW conference. Social media strategist Nate Riggs said it better than I could:
“In its simplest form, group texting sites allow for small groups of people to leverage the Web and mobile devices to set up a sort of chat room where conversations can happen in real time. One of the major advantages lies in the flexibility these sites deliver, in terms of how you can receive and send messages. For instance, if you don’t have a smart phone or are part of the BlackBerry crowd, you can still sign up for a group-texting site and send/receive messages via basic SMS. Be careful though, standard text messaging rates will apply.”
A test run and personal review
I see great potential for group-texting applications like GroupMe to make trying to coordinate meet-ups and professional or social events with a large group so much simpler. It may even become a standard for business collaboration in more forward-thinking companies, as it can serve as a replacement for e-mail for professionals on the go. Being the social-media explorer that I am, I created a group right away to test it out.
I tried it first by using it on a personal level, creating a special group for my family, which is spread out all over the U.S. We’re already finding it’s easier to keep everyone in the loop on life updates, share our latest photos, and coordinate dinners and plans when we do get the chance to be together in person.
Using group texting for business
How can businesses start thinking about using group-texting applications?
Other group-texting options
If you want to go against the crowd and use a different application, try Beluga, GroupFlier, BrightKite, Fast Society, TextPlus, PingChat, EzTexting, Rabbly, ProTexting or WeTxt.
Be sure to report back and let us know what you think!
Tags: Communication, current events, Events, fun, group texting, GroupMe, social media marketing, SXSW, text messaging, texting
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The new Twitter is here. The social-media giant has re-engineered its interface to provide a richer experience, more room for information and content, and something new called “Promoted Tweets,” which is of particular interest to advertisers.
I jumped on board moments after Twitter launched the new interface on September 14 and heard Twitter’s COO, Dick Costolo, explain the new interface the very next day at ExactTarget’s Connections 2010 conference.
The rollout has begun — eventually everyone will have the new Twitter.com — until then, here’s what you need to know.
1. Split Screen: One way the new Twitter provides a richer experience is by featuring a split screen. Information is now shown in two panes: on the left is the standard Tweet stream, and on the right is more detailed information, including video, photos, profile details, maps from geo-location-enabled Tweets and more. When you click on a Tweet, the details pane shows information related to the author or subject of the Tweet.
2. Infinite Scroll: That’s right, you never have to go to page two! The new Twitter allows you to scroll your heart out without ever having to click “more” to view additional Tweets.
3. Embedded Media: New Twitter allows you to view videos and photos without ever leaving the site. The official Twitter Blog acknowledges partnerships with an impressive list of companies that enable it to have this new never-leave-Twitter feature, including DailyBooth, deviantART, Etsy, Flickr, Justin.TV, Kickstarter, Kiva, Plixi, Twitgoo, TwitPic, TwitVid, USTREAM, Vimeo, yfrog, and YouTube.
4. Promoted Tweets: Designed for companies already on Twitter – and using it successfully — Promoted Tweets are ordinary Tweets that businesses and organizations want to push to a wider group of users. Twitter launched its Promoted Tweets platform with a few innovative advertising partners, including Best Buy, Bravo, Red Bull, Sony Pictures, Starbucks, and Virgin America. Clearly labeled as “Promoted”, these Tweets will appear at the top of some Twitter.com search results pages.
All Promoted Tweets are organic, meaning they’re already a part of Twitter and not technically an advertisement. Promoted Tweets will be timely, delivering information relevant to you at the moment like any other Tweet. The biggest difference between a Promoted Tweet and a regular Tweet is that Promoted Tweets must hit a higher bar, resonating with their users. If people (Tweeters) don’t interact with a Promoted Tweet (@reply to it, Re-Tweet it, favorite it, etc.) then the Tweet will disappear.
—
Check out Twitter’s new video that shows some great screen shots of the brand-new interface.
And, if you’re going to share your feedback with them, don’t forget to use the #NewTwitter hashtag to join the conversation!
Happy Tweeting!
Tags: #NewTwitter, Promoted Tweets, Tweets, Twitter, Twitter interface
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Though the name of the conference was “Blog Indiana 2010,” this two-day conference in downtown Indianapolis was more of a social-media extravaganza. Blogging, Tweeting, Facebooking, and searching were the keywords of the day. I attended on Friday and came away feeling excited about what I learned, inspired by some of the experts we have right here in Indianapolis, and ready to apply some new knowledge.
Seven ideas stood out to me as new tips, interesting approaches, thought-provoking strategies, or just downright worth sharing.
1. A powerful Twitter strategy can be summed up in three words: Share Good Stuff. Jason Falls of Social Media Explorer was the keynote speaker who opened the conference on Friday morning, and he has those three words (or a version that includes a more crass substitution for one of the words) taped near his computer screen. Follow those three words and other people will want to follow you.
2. 80% of traffic to business blogs is composed of first-time visitors. The objectives behind corporate blogging usually include building a solid, returning readership, but the reality is that most visitors are one-timers. Chris Baggott of Compendium Blogware, Jason Falls, and Jay Baer – three powerhouses in the industry – dug into their own and their clients’ analytics to figure this out together last winter. Because of this tendency toward new traffic, being mindful of SEO with every single blog post is a must. The #1 thing people do online is email. #2? Search. Help those people find you so the great content you’re creating gets an audience.
3. Techniques for generating leads using Facebook and Twitter are the same for both B2C and B2B. We often think of B2B prospects in a different light than B2C prospects, especially in considering using traditional media outlets to reach them. But B2B prospects are still people, just like B2C prospects. Kyle Lacy, founder of Brandswag and author of Twitter Marketing for Dummies, pointed out that B2B prospects make decisions with some emotional considerations, are looking for reviews from your customers, and want to know your stories, just like every other consumer. And yes, they’re accessing social media at work. How many people do you know that don’t have a smart phone of some kind?
4. Offer to inform or help a follower “if they’re interested.” One key idea, three powerful words. Your intent in social media can be to market and promote your company, but if you only use your platform to pitch to your audience, you’ll be ignored (and kicked out of the sandbox). Get involved, offer to take the conversation further and provide additional information, but only if they confirm they’re interested. Jason Falls again recommended that you keep in mind that the conversation needs to be about them, not you.
5. Having a schizophrenic corporate blog can be a great thing. But use bylines so your readers know which personality is talking. Chuck Gose of MediaTile mentioned that Southwest Airlines has a great corporate blog where you’ll find posts from flight attendants, the CEO, and baggage handlers alike. All these individuals contribute to the Southwest brand and experience, so followers enjoy seeing the company from many different angles. It keeps things interesting.
6. Old-fashioned, in-person communication can support your SEO efforts. Jeremy Dearringer of Slingshot SEO concluded his session on search-engine reputation management with the offer of an iPad giveaway. To be eligible, people in the session had to follow these steps: review his presentation – truthfully – on their blogs (personal or corporate), include “Slingshot SEO” in the post title, mention Slingshot SEO in the post content, and Tweet and/or share the link to that post on FB. They were then asked to email the link to Jeremy for the chance to win the iPad. Each of those requirements for the content supports Slingshot SEO’s search-engine traffic in a positive way. It never hurts to dangle a high-tech, shiny carrot in front of an audience to get them to help you out.
7. The CEO of Scotty’s Brewhouse must be one of the busiest people in Indianapolis. Not only does Scott Wise own six restaurants, he’s in the process of opening more, and he is an incredibly active participant in social media. The Brewhouse brand’s success through social media means they’re able to skip traditional advertising altogether. Until four months ago, when he hired some additional help, each day Scott was doing all the company’s Tweeting personally, answering 50-75 direct messages, monitoring 100+ mentions of @brewhouse, and searching for and responding to 20+ mentions of the restaurants that weren’t tagged with @brewhouse. (Watch it, some content could be NSFW.) And that doesn’t even list how many Tweets he was Tweeting per day. Bruce McClain joined in April and began implementing a larger social-media strategy that included empowering the staff of the company (600+ employees) to participate as well.
I’ll definitely sign up to attend again in 2011. Did you get the chance to go? If you did, what would you add to this list of new things you learned?
Tags: BIN2010, Blog Indiana 2010, blogging, conference, Facebook, Indianapolis, social media marketing, Twitter
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May 17, 2012—The faces of MB
